University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Damn Right!
Book

Damn Right!

Behing the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger

Janet C. Lowe
Wiley, 2003
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Engaging
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Charlie Munger’s life story is a version of the classic American Dream: a hard-working young man builds a billion-dollar fortune through hard work and honest business deals, all the while raising eight children with the help of an intelligent, devoted wife. Author Janet Lowe brings this story and Munger’s personality to life with well-chosen anecdotes from family, friends and business associates. These include, most notably, Warren Buffett, with whom she already enjoyed a rapport thanks to her work on a previous bestseller, Warren Buffett Speaks. Because Munger’s business history is so complex, the chapters are organized thematically rather than strictly chronologically, which can be a bit confusing. Thankfully, Lowe provides a handy timeline in an appendix. getAbstract.com suggests this book to investors, Buffett fans (who may underestimate the contributions others such as Munger have made to the Berkshire Hathaway empire) and to those dismayed by corporate corruption who could use this tale of honest success to renew their faith in capitalism.

Summary

The Early YearsOn January 1, 1924, Charles Thomas Munger was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Toody, came from a wealthy family of intellectuals, and gave her son his voracious hunger for reading and learning. His father, Al, a successful lawyer, was the son of Judge T. C. Munger, a self-educated man who rose from abject poverty to become a federal judge.Young Charlie was steeped in the family values of hard work and self-discipline. Though he worked briefly at Buffett & Son, a grocery store owned by Warren Buffett’s grandfather, he didn’t cross paths with Warren, who is five years his junior, until years later. Charlie left Omaha to attend the University of Michigan in 1941, and left school in 1943 to enlist in the Army Air Corps. He was sent to Caltech to train as a weatherman, then to Alaska. Though he never saw combat, his training proved life-changing in another way: during it, he met and married Nancy Huggins, his sister’s roommate at Scripps College.The young couple moved to Boston so Charlie could attend Harvard Law School, his father’s alma mater. Despite having no undergraduate degree, Charlie graduated magna cum laude. In 1949, Charlie, Nancy, and their son and...

About the Author

Janet Lowe, an investment writer and author, wrote Warren Buffett Speaks, as well as Welch: An American Icon and The Man Who Beats the S&P: Investing with Bill Miller. She has served as editor of the San Diego Daily Transcript and financial editor of the San Diego Tribune. In addition, she has published more than 200 business articles.

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